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This year Cruinniú na nÓg, a day of free creativity for children and young people, is going online! Will you be getting creative? There are only a few days to go and so many ways to enjoy it!

Back in May, Great Lighthouses of Ireland and Fighting Words asked 7-12 year olds to create some lighthouse stories and become Young Storykeepers. So many fantastic entries were submitted that we’re publishing them all in a multi-volume digital magazine over the summer.

BOOKINGS HAVE CLOSED! Due to demand, we are unable to accept late applications. We will be in contact with parents who applied for a place by 19 June.

We are delighted to announce the schedule of FREE ONLINE summer camps at Fighting Words for 2020!

This year, due to the continuing advice from the Government to maintain social distancing, Fighting Words summer camps will be offered online to guarantee the safety of participants, facilitators and our volunteer team.

At the beginning of May Fighting Words were asked to take part in RTE's "Operation Transformation: Keeping Well Apart". Mark worked with the four families for the week, helping them to gain confidence in creative writing using different prompts and tasks. They worked toward writing one final piece each that they then read out on RTE. The pieces are a fantastic varied collection that capture something of each families' experience and approach to life in this strange way of existence we have all adopted. We have collected the full pieces below and hope you enjoy reading them:

Calling all frontline workers and their children - we want to hear your stories!

Fighting Words – in partnership with Fighting Words NI - is launching a project to draw together a collection of writing reflecting the experiences, thoughts and ideas of frontline workers and their families during this time.

The Fighting Words volunteers scurry to set up the screen and the data projector in the Bundoran Library. Anxiously, we count the number of volunteers on hand. Will you lead the brainstorming? Will you type? Has So-and-so been vetted yet? We need to recruit more volunteers!

The busload of primary-school students arrive at 10:30, and the brainstorming begins. What does it take, the Storyteller asks, to create a story? The students shout out their answers. Pencils and paper! Commas! Brains! The ideas flow faster than the typing, but the students begin to focus when their words appear on the screen. We need a plot! Dialogue! A beginning, a middle, and an end!

In February, young writers from CanTeen Ireland came to Fighting Words for a workshop on the power of the monologue. CanTeen is the national organisation that provides support to young people who have or who have had cancer.

Participants scripted and performed their own monologues, as well as creating illustrations to represent themselves or their ideas.